World record goes as US women scorch to relay gold

Greg Baum

That's a record ... Carmelita Jeter points to the clock after she crosses the line. Photo: Getty Images

A 27-year-old world record improbably set in Canberra was demolished on Friday night when the US women's 4x100m relay team blitzed its arch rival from Jamaica, including new 100 metres champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, in the Olympic final.

East Germany set the previous record in a World Cup meeting at Bruce Stadium in 1985. At the same event, East German Marita Koch set a 400m record that still stands. But there was a drug shadow over Eastern bloc athletics at the time, and officials will doubtlessly be glad that at least one of that meeting's marks has been erased.

Carmelita Jeter, running the anchor leg for the US, had the presence of mind to point at the clock as she crossed the line, grasping before anyone else did that the record had been toppled. The US ran 40.82s, knocking 0.55s off the previous best mark.

Jeter said: "I knew that if we got the stick around then all I had to do was to bring it home." The US has an unfortunate history of fumbling the baton in this race.

Advertisement

Even last night, Michael Johnson, commentating for the BBC, said he thought they had been sloppy in their changeovers, which made their record run all the more remarkable. Though competition continues to broaden in track-and-field, the US is holding its ground. With a little luck on Saturday, it will have its most successful Olympics.

Uceny falls in another final

Devastated ... Morgan Uceny. Photo: Reuters

But for another American woman, there was only heartbreak. Morgan Uceny is the US champion and was thought a medal prospect in the 1500m, but tripped as the pace suddenly quickened at the start of the last lap. She was still there, crying and beating her fists on the track, when the race ended. Astonishingly, she had also fallen in the 1500m final at the world championships in Daegu last year.

The race was won by Turkey's Asli Cakir Alptekin, her country's first Olympic athletics gold medal. Compatriot Gamze Bulut was second, and Bahrain's Maryam Yusuf Jamal was third, giving her country its first ever Olympic medal. Countryman Rachid Ramzi "won" the 1500m in Beijing, but was later stripped of his gold for a drug violation.

Alptekin's gold last night prompted a distant ahem from Australian steeplechaser Youcef Abdi. "IOC and IAAF need to introduce a life ban for drug cheats before athletics gets ruined (right now it is only two years. It's a joke)," he tweeted. In 2004, Alptekin was suspended for two years for drug use.

The Bahamas won the men's 4x400m relay, inflicting on the US its first defeat in this event since 1952. Demetrious Pinder exclaimed: "We've finally got it over the US, thank God." It was the first medal for the Bahamas in any sport at these Games.

In the same race, South African amputee Oscar Pistorious's excellent Olympic adventure came to a tame end. His team was last throughout and Pistorious, running the anchor leg, would have needed a turbocharger to do anything about it.

"Just to participate has been great and now I am really looking forward to the Paralympics," he said. "I think they will be the best ever."